Secrets and Bombs: The Piazza Fontana bombing and the Strategy of Tension - Luciano Lanza Secrets and Bombs 21: TIMETABLE – A Basic Chronology (with video links) January 29, 2012 // 1 2 Votes Gladio (Italian section of the Clandestine Planning Committee (CPC), founded in 1951 and overseen by SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe) 1969 25 April — Two bombs explode in Milan: one at the FIAT stand at the Trade Fair and another at the bureau de change in the Banca Nazionale delle Communicazione at Central Station. Dozens are injured but none seriously. AnarchistsEliane Vincileone, Giovanni Corradini, Paolo Braschi,Paolo Faccioli, Angelo Piero Della Savia and Tito Pulsinelliare arrested soon after. 2 July — Unified Socialist Party (PSU), created out of an amalgamation of the PSI and the PSDI on 30 October 1966, splits into the PSI and the PSU. 5 July — Crisis in the three-party coalition government (DC, PSU and PRI) led by Mariano Rumor. 5 August — Rumor takes the helm of a single party (DC — Christian Democrat) government. 9 August — Ten bombs planted on as many trains. Eight explode and 12 people are injured. 7 December — Corradini and Vincileone are released from jail for lack of evidence. Gladio 12 December — Four bombs explode. One planted in the Banca Nazionale dell’Agricoltura in the Piazza Fontana in Milan claims 16 lives and wounds a further hundred people. In Rome a bomb explodes in the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, wounding 14, and two devices go off at the cenotaph in the Piazza Venezia, wounding 4. Another bomb — unexploded — is discovered at the Banca Commerciale in the Piazza della Scala in Milan. Four hours later, ordinance officers blow it up. Numerous arrests are made, chiefly of anarchists. Among those arrested is the anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli. 15 December — Anarchist Pietro Valpreda is arrested at the Milan courthouse and taken to Rome that evening. Around midnight, Pinelli ‘falls’ from the fourth floor at police headquarters in Milan. In Vittorio Veneto, Guido Lorenzon visits lawyer Alberto Steccanella to report that a friend, Giovanni Ventura, may have been implicated in the 12 December bomb outrages. 16 December — Taxi-driver Cornelio Rolandi identifies Valpreda as the passenger he ferried close to the Banca Nazionale dell’Agricolturain the Piazza Fontana on the afternoon of 12 December. 17 December — Press conference by Milan anarchists at the Circolo Ponte della Ghisolfa. The Piazza Fontana massacre is described as a “State massacre”. 20 December —Nearly 3,000 people attend Pinelli’s funeral. 26 December — Steccanella takes an affidavit written by Lorenzon to the prosecutor in Treviso. 31 December — Treviso prosecutor Pietro Calogero questionsLorenzon. 1970 27 March — Rumor forms a four party government (DC, PSI, PSDI and PRI). 15 April — Inspector Luigi Calabresi begins proceedings against Pio Baldelli, the director of the weekly Lotta Continua who had accused him of responsibility for Pinelli’s death. 21 May — Milan examining magistrate Giovanni Caizzi asks that the file on Pinelli’s death be closed and that it be recorded as an accidental death. 3 July — Antonio Amati, head of Milan CID, agrees to Caizzi’s request to close the file on Pinelli’s death. 22 July — Bomb on ‘Southern Arrow’ train kills 6 and injures 139. 6 August — Emilio Colombo takes the helm of a four party coalition government (DC, PSI, PSDI and PRI). 9 October — Calabresi-Lotta Continua case opens. Aldo Biotti, withMichele Lener representing Calabresi, chairs the court. Baldelli’s lawyers are Marcello Gentili and Bianca Guidetti Serra. The prosecution counsel is Emilio Guicciardi. 7 December — Prince Junio Valerio, leader of the Fronte Nazionale, leads an attempted coup d’état. Licio Gelli, head of the P2 masonic lodge, is in charge of kidnapping the president of the republic,Giuseppe Saragat. 12 December — Demonstrations in Milan on the first anniversary of the Piazza Fontana massacre. Fierce clashes between police and demonstrators. Student Enzo Santarelli dies when struck in the chest by a tear-gas canister fired by the police. 1971 13 April — Treviso examining magistrate Giancarlo Stiz issues warrants for the arrest of three Venetian Nazi-fascists: Giovanni Ventura, Franco Freda and Aldo Trinco. The offences alleged against them are: conspiracy to subvert, procurement of weapons of war and attacks in Turin in April 1969 and on trains that August. 28 May — The anarchists tried in connection with the bombs in Milan on25 April 1969 are acquitted. However, some are convicted of minor offences: Della Savia is sentenced to eight years, Braschi to six years and ten months, Faccioli to three years and six months. Tito Pulsinelliis cleared on all counts. All are freed from jail. 7 June — The Appeal Court in Milan accedes to a request by the lawyerLener that Judge Biotti be discharged from the Piazza Fontana investigation. 16 July — Death of taxi-driver Rolandi, the sole witness againstValpreda. 4 October — A fresh inquest into Pinelli’s death is held as a result of a complaint brought by his widow Licia Rognini. Milan-based examining magistrate Gerardo D’Ambrosio brings voluntary homicide chargers against Inspector Calabresi, police officers Vito Panessa, Giuseppe Caracuta, Carlo Mainardi, Piero Mucilli, and carabinieri LieutenantSavino Lograno. 21 October — Judge D’Ambrosio orders Pinelli’s corpse to be exhumed. 24 December — Giovanni Leone is elected president of Italy. 1972 17 February — Giulio Andreotti forms his first government: it is made up exclusively of Christian Democrats. 23 February — Piazza Fontana massacre trial opens in the Court of Assizes in Rome. Judge Orlando Falco presides. The prosecution counsel is Vittorio Occorsio. The accused are Pietro Valpreda, Emilio Bagnoli, Roberto Gargamelli, Enrico Di Cola, Ivo Della Savia, Mario Merlino, Ele Lovati Valpreda, Maddalena Valpreda, Rachele Torri, Olimpia Torri Lovati and Stefano Delle Chiaie. After a few hearings the court declares that it is not competent to hear to hear the case. 4 March — Treviso magistrates Stiz and Calogero have Pino Rauti, the founder of Ordine Nuovo and journalist with the Rome daily Il Tempo, arrested on charges of involvement in the subversive activities of Freda and Ventura. 6 March — Piazza Fontana trial is relocated to Milan. 15 March — Death of publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. His bomb-mangled body is discovered at the foot of an electricity pylon in Segrate, Milan. 22 March — Venetian magistrates Stiz and Calogero indict Freda andVentura for the Piazza Fontana massacre in Milan. 26 March — The investigation by Stiz and Calogero is passed to the Milan district authorities. It is handled by examining magistrateD’Ambrosio to whom public prosecutor Emilio Alessandrini is seconded. 24 April — Judge D’Ambrosio frees Pino Rauti for lack of evidence. 7 May — Early elections. Rauti is returned as deputy on the MSI ticket. Il Manifesto puts up Valpreda as a candidate but he is not elected. 17 May — Inspector Calabresi is shot dead in Milan. 31 May — A bomb concealed in a car goes off in Peteano (Gradisca d’Isonzo) three carabinieri are killed and one wounded. 26 June — Andreotti remains PM by forming a government with the DC, PSDI and PLI. 13 October — The Court of Cassation transfers the Piazza Fontana case to the Catanzaro jurisdiction. 10 November — A weapons arsenal is discovered in an isolated house near Camerino. 15 December — Parliament passes Law No 733, known also as the “Valpreda Law”. 30 December — Valpreda and the other anarchists from Rome’sCircolo 22 Marzo still in custody (including Gargamelli) are released.Merlino is also freed. 1973 15 January — Freda loyalist Marco Pozzan is smuggled out of the country by the SID. 9 April — Guido Giannettini, Agent Zeta, is smuggled out of the country by the SID. 17 May — Gianfranco Bertoli throws a bomb at Milan police headquarters: 4 people lose their lives and nearly 40 are injured. 7 July — Rumor returns to the government, supported by the DC, PSI, PSDI and PRI. 28 September — Enrico Berlinguer, head of the Italian Communist Party, publishes his first article in the communist weekly Rinascitabroaching the “historic compromise”. 1974 14 March — Rumor forms his fifth government with DC, PSI and PSDI support. 28 May — a bomb explodes in Brescia’s Piazza della Loggia during a demonstration organised by the United Antifascist Committee and the trade unions: 8 people are killed and almost 100 injured. 30 May — Federico Umberto D’Amato is replaced as head of theBureau of Confidential Affairs at the Interior Ministry. 20 June — Giulio Andreotti, Minister of Defence, reveals in an interview with Il Mondo that Giannettini is a SID agent, while Corriere della Sera reporter Giorgio Zicari is an informant. 4 August — A bomb explodes on board the Italicus train on the Rome-Munich line as it passes through the San Benedetto Val di Sambro (Bologna) tunnel, killing 12 people and wounding 48. 8 August — Giannettini surrenders himself to the Italian Embassy in Buenos Aires. 22 November — Aldo Moro forms a DC-PRI coalition government. 1975 27 January — Piazza Fontana case opens before the Court of Assizes in Catanzaro. The accused are: Franco Freda, Giovanni Ventura, Marco Pozzan, Antonio Massari, Angelo Ventura, Luigi Ventura, Franco Comacchio, Giancarlo Marchesin, Ida Zanon, Ruggero Pan, Claudio Orsi, Claudio Mutti, Pietro Loredan, Gianadelio Maletti, Antonio Labruna, Guido Giannettini, Gaetano Tanzilli, Stefano Serpieri, Stefano Delle Chiaie, Udo Lemke, Pietro Valpreda, Mario Merlino, Emilio Bagnoli, Roberto Gargamelli, Ivo Della Savia, Enrico Di Cola, Maddalena Valpreda, Ele Lovati Valpreda, Rachele Torriand Olimpia Torri Lovati. 1 March — Bertoli is sentenced to life imprisonment for the 17 March 1973 bomb attack outside police headquarters in Milan. This sentence is upheld on appeal on 9 March 1976. 27 October — Milan magistrate D’Ambrosio closes the file on the Pinelli death. According to the finding, the anarchist died as the result of “active misfortune”. The ‘misfortune’ resulted in his having fallen out of the window.